While I've pretty much destroyed any hopes for an audience here through lack of updates, I still like to post here from time to time. This is the one place where I can just talk about games or my work without annoying my friends and family.

It was a crazy year for me at work. At the end of 2011 we had just released the beta for CSGO to the public, but it was a very limited release. After the new year, people steadily were added and things got more and more intense.

The beta was intense. I've worked on a slew of games, and I've done the public beta process before, so I knew what to expect. Some people love what you are doing, some people are apprehensive and some don't like what you are doing. It made for very interesting work, and I learned a lot through it all. I've been making games for around 19 years now and I still have things to learn.

Through it all, I made some friends, and met a bunch of really interesting people over the internet and in person.

Anyways, super proud, it was a high point in my career.

This is turning into a designer post isn't it?

Anyways, I went to PAX again this year, but I didn't have to work in a booth this time around. I played some CSGO with some players with other members of my team, and it was really fun. I recorded some kind of promo for intel processors, that I only just saw the final cut of a few weeks ago. I was mortified to be in it in a way, but the partners who run HPE seemed pleased with the results. At PAX I also go to watch a few tournament matches for CSGO and I watched a good portion of the Dota "International" tournament.

PAX is pretty cool all the way around in my book. In a bunch of ways, its run how I think E3 should be run, but it can get a bit chaotic too, so there are tradeoffs there. Its great to make new friends and be around gamers in their element though. I think a lot of game developers forget who they are making these games for. I hope I never get that way.

I take pride in the fact that I play the games I work on and I also try to expand my gaming horizons.

I cut my Moba teeth on LoL for example last year, but I've graduated to playing Dota2 which I think is a more refined and nuanced experience. I'll probably get into that in another post sometime, I just think its the harder game to get good at, so it's where I'm throwing my hat in.

In other gaming news, I'm happy to say that I really like the WiiU. I think its a much improved iteration on the Wii console, even if it's not a mind blowing improvement in hardware capability considering how many years have passed between the game systems. I do like some of the gameplay elements that use the controller based screen, and it does add to it in some cases. What I really love is the fact the system runs in 1080p. My biggest gripe about the Wii was the fact it couldnt even muster 720p while its competitors were handling it easily.

So what have I been up to since CSGO wrapped up for me? I've been working on new stuff that I can't talk about yet, but am very excited for. It makes going to work every day extremely interesting, and it's a unique challenge to say the least.

One last thing, as I need to wrap this up... I also took part in a new design experiment that I'm very proud of. I'm a Dad now! I'm not sure how many glitches we will have with this prototype girl design, but I am hopeful it will be fun figuring it out!